Privacy laws

Canadian consumers have a better set of legal tools to hold companies responsible for privacy breaches than their U.K. counterparts, judging by a recent ruling involving an internet search engine, Toronto lawyer and mediator Howard Winkler tells AdvocateDaily.com.

The CBC recently reported on the refusal of the High Court of England and Wales to certify a class action against the search engine giant over claims the company illegally accessed iPhone users’ internet history data.

Despite describing the company’s actions in bypassing privacy settings on smartphone users’ internet browsers as “wrongful, and a breach of duty” the British judge ruled the action could not proceed because the claimants had failed to prove any damages.

Winkler, principal and founder of Winkler Dispute Resolution, says members of the consumer coalition who brought the action may have had a better chance of success in Canadian courts.

Read the full article on AdvocateDaily.com.

Companies like Facebook and Google — which have come under intense criticism for their handling of personal information — need to enter into a new social contract with their users or risk having one imposed by governments, says Toronto lawyer and mediator Howard Winkler.

“It’s time for a change in the social contract that Google and Facebook have with their users. It shouldn’t necessarily have to be the subject of legislation,” says Winkler, principal and founder of Winkler Dispute Resolution.

“I think that Google, Facebook and others should recognize that there are limits users want to put on the use and sale of their data. They should contemplate what those limits are, and give people an opportunity to opt out of certain uses of their data,” he tells AdvocateDaily.com.

Read the full article on AdvocateDaily.com.